25 September 2009

Is Dubai finally a metropolis?

Like most things in this crazy City the metro was planned conceived and built over night! Three and a half years to built one of the most advanced public transport systems in the world.

Over the last few days I've taken a few rides on it and as expected it's a great way to see the city; from a completely different angle. This is a much better way to travel in a city - as opposed to catching an underground tube or being stuck in traffic in a bus - so if the city has the resources in should take the aerial route.

Here's a series of photos taking you from the Airport to the Mall of the Emirates shopping mall on Sheikh Zayed road:As the global recession wreaks havoc with Sheikh Mohammed's grand dreams of turning Dubai into a global powerhouse - in an attempt to show the city's economic stability the RTA (Road and transport authority of Dubai) was forced to stick to an insane date that Sheikh Mo had set for the launch of the metro last year when Dubai was having a real-estate boom!

Although only a small no. of the proposed stations are now functional the Dubai Metro was offically inaugurated at 9:09:09 PM on September 9, 2009.Most of the station that are operational follow the same layout and was designed by Aedas (which is a global architectural firm with presence in some 25 global cities)And to end this entry here's a photo from inside the driver-less, fully automated train